Question

Come up with an example of a study investigating a treatment in which it would be very difficult to pair observations. Be as specific as possible.

Answer 1

There are many examples in real life in which the data that is obtained will be difficult to analyse using pairing. One such example could be:

A hypothesis of ongoing clinical interest is that vitamin C prevents the common cold. In a study involving 20 volunteers, 10 are randomly assigned to receive vitamin C capsules and 10 are randomly assigned to receive placebo capsules. The number of colds over a 12 month period is recorded.

In the above example, 20 volunteers are taken but they cannot be paired or matched as there is no information regarding whether they’re husbands and wives or male or female.

Hence the above shown study is an ideal example for the given problem statement